Radial fan controlled with impeller movable blades – CFD investigations

Modern classical power generation systems, based on power plants in Poland, where coal (hard bituminous coal or lignite) is the primary energy source, operate under variable loading conditions. Thus, all machines working in the technological system of the power generation unit are required to be adapted to variable loading, and, consequently, to operate beyond the design point of their performance characteristics. High efficiency of the process requires the efficiency of individual devices to be high, beyond the design point, as well. For both air and exhaust gases fans, an effective control system is needed to attain a high level of efficiency. As a result of cooperation between two institutes from the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Lodz University of Technology, and the Vibroson company, a new design of the radial fan with impeller movable blades, which allows for controlling the device operation within a wide range, has been developed. This new design and determination the performance characteristics for two geometrical variants of blades with computational fluid dynamics methods are presented. The obtained results have been compared to the results of the measurements of fan performance curves conducted on the test stand.